the black
had disappeared. I had fancied, during the pauses in the conversation,
that I heard strange sounds coming out of a thick part of the forest
behind us, but I took but little notice of them. The idea which passed
through my mind was that they were produced by a flock of parrots or
cockatoos retiring late to rest.

Presently I saw Pullingo come back and touch Paddy on the shoulder,
making a sign to him to follow. Paddy got up, taking his gun, which lay
by his side. Being curious to see whatever the black wished to show
him, I took up my gun also, and crept on close behind him. The black
led us in the direction from whence I had heard the sounds proceed, and
which was, I should have said, directly to the south of us, or in the
path we were about to pursue next morning.

After going some way, I observed the glare of a fire reflected on the
boughs of the trees ahead of us. We got nearer and nearer to it, when
the black stopped behind some thick, low bushes. I saw Paddy stretching
himself on tiptoe, and looking over them; and imitating him, I beheld a
spectacle which sent a thrill of horror through me. Paddy's teeth were
chattering and his limbs shaking, yet he still looked on with a fixed
gaze, as if he could not force himself away. Directly in front of us,
but some distance off, in the dark portion of a forest glade, appeared
some twenty or thirty skeleton forms, every limb in rapid motion,
twisting and turning and leaping,--the legs and arms being thrown out
sometimes alternately, like the toy figures worked by a string for the
amusement of babies and small children. Now they went on one side, now
on the other; now they cast themselves towards the ground, as if they
were about to turn head over heels, in the fashion of boys making a
"wheel" alongside carriages; now up they leaped all together, now one
following the other; till, after a succession of more extravagant
motions than before, they suddenly disappeared. I thought they had gone
altogether, when in another instant they again burst into view and
recommenced the same performances as before.

For the first few seconds--until I had time for reflection--I could
scarcely help fancying that they were skeletons animated by magic power;
and poor Paddy, I saw, fully believed that such was the case. All the
time, a band of native musicians, with their drums, were furiously
beating away directly in front of us, apparently unconscious of our
presence.